BETWEEN US

At the Manhattan Theatre Club, 131 W. 55th St. Phone CityTix, (212) 581-1212.

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LIKE the best kind of TV writing, Joe Hortua’s new play, “Between Us,” gets its characters’ class, money issues and problems down to a T. While it hasn’t got the weight or breadth of a solid play, as an anatomy of the compromises life exacts, “Between Us” is sharp as a tack.

To the Midwest home of Joel and Sharyl come Carlo and Grace from New York. Joel and Carlo went to college together a decade ago, when both had dreams of becoming serious photographers, but Joel has sold out and works in advertising while Carlo is still trying to make a go of it as an artist.

Carlo and Grace (portrayed with an edgy nervousness by Bradley White and Daphne Rubin-Vega) are shocked to discover their friends’ home a cesspool of venom and unhappiness. Sharyl (smolderingly done by Kate Jennings Grant) is mainly occupied with reining in her sarcastic, drunken hubby.

As Joel, David Harbour delivers one of the most explosive, nasty and witty performances of the season.

“I spent 400 billable hours worrying about getting honey to drip just right off a granola bar” is his self-hating job description.

He rails against the Midwest – whose main feature is “a lack of anything decent” – and is relentlessly savage to his wife.

A new father, he’s also obsessed with debunking the joys of parenthood: “Do you hear apes at the zoo rambling about their offspring?” Joel is a desperate, drowning man.

The second act takes place three years later at Carlo and Grace’s New York apartment. They now have a baby of their own, and much else has changed. It’s like coming back after a commercial break and finding a new landscape.

Director Christopher Ashley moves his four players with passionate precision through Neil Patel’s beautifully designed spaces. The woodsy-bricky feel of Joel and Sharyl’s airy home in the first act contrasts exquisitely with Carlo and Grace’s rundown apartment.

“Between Us” provides pungent and smart glimpses of its tormented characters’ lives.